Scientist, activist Ian Trowbridge dead

He was the product of early post-war England who developed a keen interest in how things work, first on the cellular level and then in local government.

His friends said Ian Trowbridge of Mission Hills relished the life sciences because he needed things to make sense, and embraced facts over most everything.

Trowbridge, the retired Salk Institute researcher who turned his attention to local politics and became a thorn in the side of many an elected official, died Wednesday of an undisclosed illness. He was 65.

“Ian was a scientist at heart. That’s what he did, that’s what he was trained to do,” said East County activist Charlene Ayers, who worked with Trowbridge to hold government officials accountable to the people they serve.

“He liked the empirical method, where you collect the evidence and the documentation and you came to a conclusion,” she said. “He felt his training as a medical researcher transferred over very well to all the investigative work he did to keep government open and honest.”

Trowbridge grew up in Derbyshire, a county in the Midlands area of England. He earned a doctorate at Oxford University and moved to San Diego to become a junior faculty member at the Salk Institute in 1972. He was promoted to a full professorship in 1983 and culled an expertise in molecular and cell biology.

“He was really interested in these proteins on the surface of cells in the immune system, which obviously are critical in our ability to mount a response to viruses and bacteria,” said Tony Hunter, a Salk professor who co-published several papers with Trowbridge. “He trained a lot of very good fellows.”

After Trowbridge retired from the Institute in 2001, he looked around his community to see where else he might help.

Trowbridge became a fixture at public meetings of the San Diego City Council, the county Board of Supervisors, the port commission and any other public agency that he thought might benefit from his civic interest. He advocated for clean-needle exchanges to fight the spread of AIDS. He sued to stop developments over environmental issues, or to avert generous severance packages for corrupt officials.

He filed perhaps hundreds of California Public Records Act requests over the years and filed lawsuits when he believed public meetings were improperly held in secret. He ran unsuccessfully for City Council.

“When it came to civic affairs, he was interested in making sure the public had the benefit of the truth,” said Cory Briggs, an attorney who litigated several high-profile cases with Trowbridge.

Briggs said Trowbridge’s biggest victory came when he and others sued the Port of San Diego over plans to spruce up San Diego's waterfront North Embarcadero. Trowbridge wanted more public park space and forced port officials into accepting a 150-foot open space east of Harbor Drive between Broadway and Grape Street. He was not convinced the agreement would be honored.

“Today was a good day,” Trowbridge told reporters in 2010, on the day the agreement was reached. “Tomorrow could be miserable.”

The retired scientist was relentless in his pursuit of records and information. Once he nailed down what he considered a public disservice, he was quick to confront the offending official.

At a 2006 meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, for example, Trowbridge broke the usual decorum and addressed Bill Horn, the powerful North County supervisor.

“Why does your chief of staff live in a million-dollar house that you own separately from your wife?” Trowbridge said during the public-comment portion of the meeting. “Do all board members extend this privilege to their chiefs of staff? Does your chief of staff pay market rate rent, Mr. Horn, and have you reported that on your statement of economic interest forms for 2004 and 2005?”

Horn said there was nothing improper about the real estate transaction with his staffer, but he did amend his state forms to disclose it.

"Ian was one of the most passionate citizens I've ever worked with at City Hall," said Councilman Kevin Faulconer, who was elected in 2005 from a field of candidates that included Trowbridge. "We had a mutual respect for each other. I will miss him."

Trowbridge was born in 1947 and had lived in San Diego since he was in his 20s. His friends said he had an ex-wife who passed away some years ago, and a grown son and daughter. They said his family declined to provide additional details about his personal life.